Chapter 1

For ten years, I was Cassandra’s secret partner, her hidden companion through thick and thin.

From the time she had nothing to commanding a multi-billion dollar empire.

In the end, she died in my arms, a victim of late-stage stomach cancer.

At the funeral, everyone praised me as a loyal and honorable man, silently by her side even after her rise to fame.

But only I knew that, in her final moments, gripping my hand, her lips whispered the name of Liam, the true love of her life.

She left me with just one sentence: “Dean, in your next life, please don’t find me again. I could never give you the name you deserved.”

“If there’s an afterlife, I truly wish… I could marry Liam.”

I mourned for a full week, my heart turned to ash, and consumed by sorrow, I wasted away.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back ten years ago, at our university graduation party.

She stood there, publicly confessing her unrequited love to Liam, the campus golden boy, only to be rejected. Then, with tear-rimmed eyes, she approached me in the corner, asking, “Dean, didn’t you say you liked me? Let’s be together.”

I looked at the fresh tear stains beneath her eyes and smiled.

Then, right in front of her, I deleted all her contacts. “Cassandra, I don’t like you anymore.”

Liam’s discards? Not interested, not anymore.